It can be from Marvel, Dreamwave, IDW or Fun Pub. I'll start off the list with Transformers (Marvel) # 26 and 28 with "The Mechanic". Rereading # 26 and finally buying and reading # 28 (which I kept putting off as one of the last issues I even wanted to own a I pick up the last of the 30+ issues I am missing to complete the Marvel run), the story had me completely underwhelmed.

 

It seems like, regardless of publisher, the Micromasters can't ever get a good story told for them.

 

As an aside, since Micromasters are already human-sized in the Marvel books, can humans even fit inside their alt-modes or are their alt-modes the size of Shriners' cars?

 

IDK, I kinda liked "A Small War!".

Reverse mass-shifting!

 

FunPub: Every Classicsverse story before Invasion.
Dreamwave: Everything except MTMTE ang WW.
IDW: AHM, Costa's ongoing, the Bumblebee miniseries and Heart of Darkness.

 

That first Dreamwave mini was pretty brutal.

And, like a sucker, I bought it anyway, 'cause Transformers were back.

 

The Beast, Dawn of Predacus (which was Beast Wars except with so much G1 thrown in it stopped being Beast Wars and became an episode of G1 airing under the Beast Wars title-card), and Deviations I think are the worst offenders.

Oh yeah, and the Dreamwave stuff is pretty bad. The War Within was a pretty decent Furman Transformers story, but even the parts of Dreamwave people say are good like the Sunstorm and Shockwave stuff is actually about on par with Costa's writing. Also all the female Autobots being Quintesson agents was not great either. It just did nothing interesting whatsoever, and in compared to now, Sunstorm is not nearly as cool a villain as people made him out to be at the time.

 

I was so sick of Sunstorm after maybe 2 issues. And he kept coming back. And back. And back.

 

Yeah, I don't know why, but the Mechanic always sticks out in my memory, too. A horrible concept with an even more horrible character design. Sometimes it really felt like Budiansky and the artists were having a competition with themselves for how boring they could make the book, constantly trying to outdo themselves. Like, here's a boring character. Oh yeah? Well, watch me make him look even more boring than the character you described!

People always bring up Carwash of Doom, but other than the goofy name, the idea kind of made sense in the context of the story being told. For me, the Mechanic was much worse.

 

Marvel, I didn't really care for Man of Iron (33/34), not because it was a bad story, but because of how it was placed in the U.S. comics. It was one of the first British issues, then appears three years later in the US. In the US at that point, the plotline didn't fit, had a huge body count of characters that may or may not be offline at the time, and killed characters we didn't meet or previously know. Very strangely thrown in and totally breaks the other wise good pace of the late 20s/early 30s issues, but it was probably a source of inspiration for TLK.

Dreamwave, not really a fan of the Energon stuff. Actually, let's change the worst, it was that trilogy of books (Hardwired, Annihilation, and Fusion) Dreamwave backed. So terribly edited and written.

Fun Publications and 3H, haven't read enough of their stuff.

IDW, I would say the worst has to be the Tarn letdown, even more than the strange ending to BWG. And maybe the recent Hasbroverse stuff like bringing in M.A.S.K., Rom, Micronauts, etc. Not a bad idea, just badly executed I think.

To be more positive, I absolutely loved Matrix Quest from Marvel, Prime Directive and War and Peace from IDW, and Last Stand of the Wreckers from IDW.

 

It was stated in that reprint to have taken place quote "a while back" relative to US #32 or US #35. It was just filler tossed in by Marvel US to meet their publication schedule, not meant to be a part of the then-current plotline. In context with the other UK stories Man of Iron is actually quite brilliant.

Just so I'm actually contributing to this conversation I'd have to say all of the non-canon Marvel UK Annual stories. The continuity errors make my brain hurt. For IDW the first ongoing series up until Chaos Theory, because it hurts my damn eyes to look at. I've never read any Dreamwave comics for the exact reason why it's so popular on this thread, but I think I can safely assume they'd be on my list if I had.

 

I said the story itself wasn't bad. My opinion of it is based on when I first read it as a 7 year old, reading the first print in Virginia in '87, and it making absolutely no sense. And, even today, it still does a number on the pacing of that story arc.

 

I've only read the UK series all the way through, so I can't really empathize

 

I guess to get the feeling, go read issue 139 and 140 of the UK series (but put in an advertisement for 141 and 142 at the end of 140), and then go back and read issues 9-12, and then read issues 141 and 142, in that order. I understand why it was done, but it makes it choppy.

I know the UK series had more sidetracks than the US series did, and it integrated the Headmasters into the main story rather than making them a mini-series, so maybe that is why it didn't make as big an impact.

 

Really, people don't like Dreamwave? I read the first mini recently and I throughly enjoyed it

 

Yeah, basically the whole of 1989 was like that. I lucked out with a decent reading order though, and Man of Iron wasn't reprinted in the UK series like it was in the US. What reprints there were in that year were only backup strips to current issues, same as Headmasters.

 

I liked the first two minis.

 

I enjoyed issue 1 of the first mini. 2 - 6, not so much.
Second mini was better, but like all "Brad Mick" issues, way too much exposition. I'm not against reading, but...... dang!

 

I've always thought that story was hugely overrated. And John Ridgway, while a truly legendary artist on things like Hellblazer and Doctor Who, was a horrible fit for Transformers (which, when I think about it, was par for the course during that era of TF comics). To be honest, as big a fan of Marvel UK TF as I am, the stuff I think is good is all post-movie.

 

IDW

Most of Barber's stuff.
IDW TF/Joe crossover.
Any scene with Rattrap or Alpha Trion.

Marvel

Budiansky's human centric stories like Car Wash, the Mechanic, Cosmic Carnival and anything with Circuit Breaker though I liked his human friendly Skullgrin.

I did like his Micromasters stuff and he never made Prowl a prick.

Earthforce. Skids' Nightmare story. Wanted Galvatron. Robotbuster

I loved Dreamwave.